


Parenthetical, the Second (part one)

by SerenStone



Series: Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light [4]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Cloud - Freeform, Clutch - Freeform, Clutter, Do Not Do As the Warlock Do, F/M, Multi, Other, Squall - Freeform, We Stan Ghosts in this House, We Stan Hunters in this House, We Stan Warlocks in this House, We Stay Warlocks in this House
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:47:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24195376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerenStone/pseuds/SerenStone
Summary: Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight
Relationships: Guardian/Ghost
Series: Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1743430
Comments: 8
Kudos: 6





	Parenthetical, the Second (part one)

“Hey!” 

Silla heard MU call a greeting but didn’t look up from watching the other four split as teams fighting it out in the field. Typically, the “Crimson Days” teams were split into Ectoplasm: Silla and MU, Demolition: Lishan and Pryderi, and Fade: Vice and Rathna. Lishan had presented the idea (argument) that their teams should be split along typical fireteam lines for ease of cohesion. Silla had allowed the idea to move as a suggestion and pitted the two teams against each other to see what would happen. 

“What brings you all the way out here?” MU asked behind her as Pryderi and Rathna burst into the Ward of Dawn and obliterated Lishan and Vice _again_.

“Sightseeing,” Astrophel’s voice answered MU and Silla stood, turning and walking away from the look Lishan was giving her.

“Hey,” Silla said, then looked up to find Shry peering past Katya at the rest of the team. Ardath-4 waved at her from behind Shry. “Didn’t expect you until tomorrow.”

“We made good time,” Katya said, gripping Silla’s arm. “You want to do introductions?”

“Only if I can convince you two to help with training today,” she grinned. MU looked at her in alarm.

Shry looked back at her, arching a brow. “How so?”

“Doubles duels,” she explained. “No, I didn’t plan this.”

Shry and Katya looked at each other and shrugged in time. “Sure,” Katya said. 

“Oh no,” MU groaned. “Who the hell are you?” he asked, turning to Shry. 

The woman’s lips quirked into a smile. “Shry. You?”

“MU-3,” the EXO said faintly. “Silla, no,” he begged, turning back to the Hunter.

“Silla yes,” she countered. “Line up!” she called. “We have guests!” Lishan was still visibly irritated but otherwise the line up went as it should. “Clutch, you already know Katya-7 and Astrophel. She’s recently chosen to fireteam with Shry, here. Over there is Isaac, and that’s Ardath-4” she gestured to each in turn and ignored her team’s surprise. “Now,” she glanced at Shry. “Get ready for a lot of names.”

“All right,” Shry said amiably. 

“Lishan Gall and Niles, with MU is Marikit, Pryderi Keen and Rangi, Rathna-8 and Kreine, Eidel Varela is also known as Vice and that’s Anselm.”

“So are you Red War Shry or what?” Vice asked with her usual tact, prompting Ardath to choke on air.

“Yes,” Shry shrugged and Silla grinned. 

“Given lack of other preparation,” Silla nodded to Lishan as if her idea hadn’t been a trash fire. “We’ll be using our typical Crimson teams. MU, you good with us going first?”

“That’s fine,” he said breezily enough she knew it wasn’t fine. “Rikit likes it when I’m dead.”

Marikit rolled her eye even as the rest of the team laughed. Ardath looked ready to bolt. Katya already had her helmet on but Silla could see her displeasure in her stance. Shry was visibly upset but subsided when Silla shook her head. “Field limitations?” Shry asked instead.

Bee shot into the air and pinged the edges to Astrophel and Isaac.

Shry glanced around the area, taking in what Isaac showed her. “Any vertical limitations?”

Silla could feel the attention of Rathna and MU shift to Shry. “None.”

“Dangerous,” Shry noted.

“Some realism is expected in these sorts of things.”

“Shry typically fights until defeat in sparring, not kills,” Katya pointed out. Shry blinked as if she hadn’t realized the idea that that needed to be communicated.

“That what you want to do today?” Silla asked.

“Please,” Shry said immediately. 

“Deal,” Silla agreed. She could see that Lishan had already disregarded Shry after that comment. She’d deal with that later. _Bee, could you-_

_Isaac has already asked if they should be gentle with MU._

Silla sighed in relief. _Katya’s good at teaching through fighting_ , she said.

_Got it._

Silla caught Shry’s gaze and held it, nodding once. The woman grinned and nodded before jamming her helmet on. This fight would be more about Shry and Silla than it would be Katya and MU, thankfully. She pulled MU after her as she walked into the field. 

“You’re gonna be okay,” she told him.

“That’s only the hero of the Red War and the Titan she’s willing to fireteam with and, you know, the one who taught you most everything. I don’t know which is scarier,” he said.

“MU,” she drew his attention back to her. “You’re on Katya. Watch what she’s doing, what she wants you to do. Everything I learned from her I learned by fighting her. I know you have good observation skills when you use them.”

“You going to be okay with Shry?” he asked, the plates of his brow drawing together. “I know she said she doesn’t kill but,” he shrugged.

“I’ll be fine,” she smiled reassuringly. “I’ll give you grenades when I can, yeah?”

“Right. No pressure.”

“Run if you think you should,” she said, recapturing his attention. “She helped me design some of your early training plans. She’ll know what’s going on.” He relaxed in stages as it became clear that he could still use the things he was good at.

“Okay. Any other tips?”

“Blink the fuck out of her.”

MU barked a laugh and nodded, clapping a hand on her shoulder. “I think I can manage that,” he agreed. He gestured at Marikit and his weapons changed. Silla was glad to see the grenade launcher that Martellus had given him among his loadout. She nodded, clapped his shoulder, and then jogged back several meters behind him while Bee put a bow in her hands. 

Shry and Katya moved apart as they did, Shry taking the forward position. She had her Riskrunner in her hands. Katya had a Vanguard standard auto-rifle. The rest of Clutch was perched on top of the hill and Ardath had settled himself next to Rathna. Good choice.

Niles darted out over the field. “You may begin at five,” he called, loud enough to be heard clearly even as far out as Silla was. “Mark. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.”

Silla sprinted for the trees, lobbing three arrows toward Shry’s position as if she were gauging distance and wind speed. MU had sprinted in the opposite direction from her, drawing Katya further away from Shry. Shry watched them go and waved a hand, dropping a Rift more or less exactly where MU and Katya would intercept each other before she turned to watch Silla fire four more arrows at her.

Shry’s helmet tilted as the arrows raced toward her, only to blink behind them and toward Silla. Never having seen someone break into Stormtrance that quickly, Silla wasn’t ready for the speed with which Shry crossed the field. Cursing, she ducked under a bolt of lightning and tossed her bow for Bee as she reached for the experimental Dead Man Walking Ada had let her try. She put three rounds into Shry’s trigger shoulder and jumped back to avoid the storm grenade. 

Sparing a glance and a snare bomb in MU’s direction, Silla dove away from another lightning bolt even as she drew on the Light to fire Shadowshot almost point blank into Shry’s chest. She thought she heard the woman chuckle as she let go of Riskrunner. Silla emptied The Colony’s clip toward Shry even as she jogged backwards, assuming this would only maybe slow the woman down. 

Sure enough, Shry blinked again, this time straight into the air with a sword in her hands. Silla threw herself into Vanishing Step and sprinted across the field, lobbing a swarm grenade at Katya as she went by. Once on the far side of the field she was fully in Solar and she called up a weighted knife, spun it once around her finger, and turned to find Shry descending on her. The knife left her hand at the same time that she dove to the side, barely escaping the outer edge of Stormtrance. 

Silla spotted MU running through the brush on the far side of the field and grinned. She had time. She rolled out of the way of Shry’s sword and spun on her heel, launching Blade Barrage without taking the time to be precise about aiming. Shry blinked out of the way of all but one of the knives and Silla took several pot shots with the pistol as she sprinted to the side, cycling her energy into Arc. 

Using Arc against Shry wasn’t smart but she was willing to bet it would be fun.

Silla slipped into Focused Breathing and made it across the field in time to slide past MU and uppercut a fist past Katya’s guard, striking her solidly across the jaw. MU got some extra time to create space and Silla got to say “Hi!” as she popped up and “Bye!” as she dove away. Sprinting again to weave back towards Shry, Silla was surprised to find running through a Void flavored Empowering Rift. 

“Awesome,” Silla muttered to her comm link with MU. She only just got her Arc Staff into her hands in time to deflect the incoming spray of Arc from Riskrunner. Then Landfall impacted around her and into her and she knew it was over even before the rest of Stormtrance followed. “Oof,” she managed, when her vision cleared. She was flat on the ground and Shry was crouched at her side. Someone had put a rift under her. “Damn, that was good.”

Shry’s helmet tilted. “You call getting hit that hard good?” 

“I forget you haven’t watched anyone but Katya train me,” Silla noted. “Yeah. It’s nice when folks can beat me.”

“Not happen much?” Shry asked, voice wry.

“Not often enough. Team wouldn’t know how to function if I went down in the field. How bad an idea is it to sit up yet?”

“I’d give it another bit,” Shry said as MU jogged up behind her. 

“Faer?” 

“She hits good!” she told her friend. 

MU shook his head and shrugged at Shry. “You get used to it.”

“Oh, I am. It runs in the family,” Shry laughed. 

Silla smacked her lips inside her helmet. “This rift is not Void.”

“Nope,” Shry said, laughter still in her voice. 

“There’s no Arc on my team but me,” Silla whined. “Well. Lishan can Chaos Reach but she never does. I never get to fight Arc. You two need to stick around for a while.”

“I think that’s the plan,” Shry said, indulgently. 

“Ooh, I hear stomping,” Silla said.

“I think I know how Bee feels now,” MU said wryly. 

“You have no idea,” Bee said from somewhere above Silla.

“Hi, Bee!” Silla said cheerfully, waving upwards. “Hi Astrophel! Hi Katya!”

The stomping stopped at Silla’s shoulder. “Oh no,” Katya sighed. “You’re high.”

“What?” MU sounded alarmed.

“Some people get like this after strong shocks,” Shry explained. 

“Katya, Katya tell him how good he did,” Silla insisted, beaming up at her friend. “He lasted longer than me!”

Katya shook her head at the Hunter at her feet. “You did well,” Silla heard her say to MU. She knew from experience Katya would tell him a few things he had done well in general, then list things he could work on, then tell him a few specific things he had done that had been excellent. Hopefully MU would listen.

“Hey, Shry?” she asked.

“Yeah?”

“I fucked up.”

“Yeah, you kind of did.”

“More than kind of,” Silla corrected sternly.

“I’m not so sure. You got yourself and your team some really excellent gear, and it sounds like you got a bit of a celebrity mentor for yourself. That’s a pretty good haul.”

“Dumb risk though. And not worth it if you hate me,” Silla pointed out.

Shry made a sound Silla hadn’t heard before. “I don’t hate you, Silla.”

Silla blinked. “Might should.”

“Maybe,” Shry agreed. “But, look at it this way. You have a Cabal Emperor as your patron and The Gentleman himself as a teacher. One could argue that Rasputin is my patron.”

“Who was your teacher?”

The woman sighed. “Loss, mostly. Being Lightless. Being the only one with Light. The Almighty. Ghaul.”

“I’m sorry,” Silla told her. “That sounds awful.”

“It was,” Shry agreed. “That’s part of why we worry about you young Lights. Why Astrophel has worked to make sure that you’re safe and that the people you care for are safe. He doesn’t want you to go through losing someone. He doesn’t want to lose you.”

Silla considered this as her brain began to feel more normal. “You’ll keep them safe? I don’t want to lose them.”

“Best I can,” Shry nodded. 

“And they’ll keep you safe,” Silla knew.

“Yeah,” Shry smiled. “You’re starting to sound more like you.”

“I think so. Do you ever get used to it?”

“I never have,” Shry admitted. “There are those who do.”

“I hope I don’t,” Silla mused. “I hope I get familiar enough with it that I can still function but hooo.”

“Yup, you’ve got it bad.” Shry held out a hand. 

Silla took it and let the shorter woman help her up. “Oh man,” she breathed. Everything she saw looked brighter. She bent backward into a simple flip. “Oh no,” she said. 

“What now?” Bee asked.

“This feels really good,” she admitted.

“Oh for-” Katya turned and threw her hands in the air, having apparently tuned back in to their conversation. “Damnit, Shry. I am not telling her dads.”

Silla watched a small shudder start at the base of Shry’s back and travel upwards. Odd. 

“I can deal with that,” Shry’s voice was different enough that Silla shot a look at Bee.

 _That explains a lot_ , the Ghost decided. Silla nodded once in her direction. 

“Right,” Silla said, clapping her hands together. “Do you two need a break or-”

“Oh please, Silla, give me your problem children and let me electrocute them,” Shry said in the flattest voice she had and MU started cackling long before Silla remembered how to breathe.

“I beg your pardon. Dad is not nearly old enough for grandchildren, how dare you.” She spotted the catch in Shry’s breathing and nodded at Bee again. “They’re resentful foster children, most of them.”

“At best,” MU snickered.

Silla caught Katya watching Shry’s reactions too and grinned. “So. You want Demolition or Fade next?”

“Demolition,” Katya and Shry said at once. 

“That’s terrifying,” MU said, abruptly sober. 

“And they’ve only been a fireteam for what… two weeks?”

“Shit,” MU breathed. 

“I’ll send Demo down in a minute,” Silla called to Katya and Shry and headed back up to where the rest of Clutch was waiting. “Comments?” She opened the floor.

“I vote no?” Pryderi ventured. 

“Demo’s up next by request,” she shrugged. 

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“We’ll be fine,” Lishan said through Niles as she rolled her eyes.

“Comments or critique?” Silla reminded them.

“That was really good defense, MU,” Vice said begrudgingly.

MU blinked at her in surprise. “Thanks, Vice.” 

Rathna patted him on the shoulder once and then took Silla’s hand and shook it.

“I don’t know how to interpret that,” Pryderi said, watching Rathna. 

“Me neither,” MU admitted. 

“MU did well. Silla took two direct hits from Shry and didn’t fall down until Shry let off,” Rathna explained haltingly. Ardath smiled faintly.

Lishan laughed in silence, shaking her head. 

“Anything constructive, Lishan?”

“You gave them control of the field until MU started running. He was doing fine on his own. You were doing fine until you tried to help him. That’s when she destroyed you,” the Warlock’s Ghost rattled off. 

“I strongly recommend Attunement of Grace,” MU offered. 

“And give up our primary damage output?” Lishan shook her head.

“Maybe we could kill- whittle them down slowly and survive in the well?” Pryderi said hopefully. 

“I can handle this!” Lishan insisted.

She couldn’t. Shry knocked her out of the sky the first time she tried for Daybreak and then toyed with her while Katya chased Pryderi around the field for a bit. Eventually they traded and Pryderi tried to outrun Stormtrance while Katya hurled Thundercrash after Lishan so fast she barely got off the ground. Silla stood at the top of the hill and tapped her foot until Lishan put out the fires she’d started. Katya and Shry spoke with Lishan and Pryderi briefly but Silla could see the anger in Lishan’s posture. 

“Once Fade gets started, take Pryderi and Ardath and get some space, yeah?” she muttered to MU. “I’ll handle Lishan.”

“Lishan should handle Lishan,” he sighed. “Yeah, I’ll give them space.”

“Thanks.”

“Silla, how the fuck did you outrun that? She had to use blink to chase you!” Pryderi cried, throwing himself at the ground. Rathna crouched and patted his chest. “Thanks Rath; I got it that time.”

“Hunter bullshit, mostly,” Silla confessed. “These St0mp-EE5 are incredible,” she gestured at her boots. “That and Focused Breathing probably should have been my strategy from the get go.” Rathna nodded along.

“Comments?” Lishan’s hands cut through the air.

“Well,” MU shrugged. Silla, Vice, and Rathna all nodded and Lishan hissed. 

“Go ahead, Fade. Pace yourselves,” Silla said. Vice and Rathna headed down the hill without a word.

“Hey, Keen. I found a spot under a tree that has better lumbar support. Ardath, you should come too,” MU said, toeing at Pryderi’s hip. 

“Oh,” Pryderi sighed. “That sounds amazing. Thank you, my friend.”

“You have to stand up,” MU reminded him.

“Do you hate me?” the Titan wheezed.

Lishan’s hands moved and Silla tossed a pebble at her face plate, easily drawing her ire as MU hustled Pryderi and Ardath away. “Do you enjoy making a fool out of me?” the awoken woman signed furiously, getting in Silla’s face.

Bee darted away to record Fade’s match with Niles. Everyone knew the drill at this point. 

“Nope. You keep doing it though,” Silla said casually. “You might want to work on that.”

“I will not be mocked,” she signed. 

“I’m not mocking you,” Silla said, pulling off her helmet so Lishan could see her face. “I am trying to tell you that you’re hurting yourself.”

“You keep saying things like that and you still make no sense,” Lishan growled as her hands moved through the signs. When she was finished signing, she yanked off her own helmet. 

“Maybe if you’d slow down and listen to me, you might see what I mean,” Silla offered mildly. She was really tired of this argument but she was pretty sure she’d never get tired of having Lishan in her face spitting mad. She was gorgeous all the time, but angry? Transcendent. 

“I have listened!” Lishan insisted, all but stomping her foot. 

“Then tell me why I’m concerned.”

“You think that just because I can’t talk-”

“Nope,” Silla said firmly. “You don’t have to use spoken words to perform well in the field.”

“I am not a cripple!”

“No, you’re not,” Silla agreed, then paused. “But it would be okay if you were.”

Lishan spat at her feet. “Guardians cannot afford such things,” she signed.

“Why?” Silla asked calmly. 

“We cannot afford any weakness.”

“Then why are you tolerating being the weak link in the team?”

Lishan shrieked and her entire person lit on fire as she surged for a Silla who was no longer there. Instead and to Silla’s surprise, Lishan ran face first into Shry.

Shry stood there watching, helmet nowhere to be seen, as Lishan backed off and shook off the confusion, still snarling as she clutched fire in her fist. 

“Shry,” Silla barked.

The woman kept her gaze fixed on the blazing Warlock as she stepped out of the way. Lishan dashed forward twice, having consumed her grenade. She went for Silla’s throat. Silla let her get close enough to try and then gently grabbed Lishan’s wrists, spinning her around and pinning Lishan’s still blazing back against Silla’s chest plate.

Silla leaned into the heat and whispered in Lishan’s ear. “This. This is what I mean. This is why I’m concerned. Every time you get upset you lose yourself to rage and make yourself an easy target. I never want to see you die, Lishan. I never want to see you fall. I want you to learn to take this fury and turn it into a weapon you can use on the enemy rather than yourself, rather than your allies. You master your anger and you have a good chance at overpowering everyone on our team. Figure out what you’re afraid of, face it, master it, and you master your anger. We’ll still be here when you’re ready to be on a team.” 

Silla let her go and took a step back, gingerly pulling off her burning gloves and warped chest plate. MU sprinted to her side and plunged his Daybreak into the ground behind her. “Thanks,” she managed, not taking her eyes off the other awoken. 

Lishan hissed something that Niles tried to counter but she slashed her still-burning hand through the air and he sagged. He blinked once at Bee and transmatted them away.

Silla worked her jaw and fingered her nose as her skin knitted back together. Eventually she dropped her hand. “Shit,” she said.

Rathna’s voice came from just behind her. “Not you.”

“Did she really just try to kill you?” Pryderi asked, stunned.

“Shit, boss,” Vice ran a hand over her dreadlocks. “I didn’t think she’d gotten that bad or I’d have said something.”

“She’s scared of something. Really, really scared of something,” MU sighed, Silla gestured toward him, indicating her agreement. He turned her hands in his, checking to see how she was healing.

“She has good reason to be scared,” Shry said. She was pulling off her gloves when the team turned to face her. “She’s seen things that almost no one else has survived seeing.”

“What are you talking about?” Pryderi asked, bewildered.

“How do you know Lishan?” Vice said, already back to ready to defend her teammate. 

“Easy, Vice,” Katya said, joining Shry. “Gall really hasn’t told you all?”

“Are they all that new?” Silla only barely made out Shry’s broken hearted question. 

“What,” her tone was far harder than she meant for it to be and she knew it startled her team but she couldn’t quite help it. Even as the voice reminded her of the part of her father she didn’t know how to show love to, she found herself using it for protection. “Do I not know?”

“Lishan Gall was one of seven Guardians on a fireteam called Bantusk,” Shry said slowly, her face suddenly much older. “She was fairly young, but her mentor took her with him. She was the seventh because the rest of the team didn’t think she was experienced enough to count toward their total. Bantusk entered the Hellmouth on the moon.” Silla stiffened, horrified. “They fought Crota there. Only Lishan, her mentor, and one Hunter survived. Both her mentor and the Hunter who survived Crota with them died to Oryx.”

Katya’s head dropped a little. “I didn’t realize they were in Win Count,” she said softly. Shry only nodded. 

“Shit.” Silla sighed, one hand covering her eyes without weight; the burns were mostly healed but still sensitive. “Fuck.”

“Not you,” Rathna said again, tugging on Silla’s sleeve. 

“Lishan Gall slew Crota,” Shry said. 

Silla wilted where she stood and Rathna’s hand fell away. “Not you,” they said again, much more quietly. Silla patted their shoulder.

Vice’s eyes were huge. “She never said. Why would she never-”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” MU said slowly and everyone looked at him.

“The fuck?” Vice said, visibly gearing up to be angry.

“Someone who’d killed a creature like Crota should be just overflowing with Light all the time, right?”

Katya shook her head. “Not necessarily. Lishan got the killing blow. No more or less than that.”

“But if she was that young and inexperienced and she survived where the others didn’t and was able to get the killing blow she would have to be astounding,” he countered, glancing at Silla. “She’s never demonstrated any sort of endurance of Light or-”

“Oh for- Just because you’re jealous-” Vice snarled.

“Vice,” Silla’s voice was like a crack in concrete. “Your loyalty to your team lead is commendable but I would appreciate it if you even once showed the same loyalty to your third.” Vice’s mouth shut with a click. “MU.”

“Lishan’s um. She kills things faster than almost anyone when she gets going, but she has no more Light than the rest of us. Sometimes it feels like she’s trying to do what she does with less Light than me and I haven’t known how to talk to her about that.”

“The Hive are, at their basest, parasites,” Shry pointed out. “And they are happy to feed on Light. They also use a number of poisons. There is no way to know what injuries of hers went untreated in the Hellmouth that may still be impacting her. Additionally, the magic of the Hive is based in the polar opposite of Light, Dark. Something down there could have lessened her capacity to hold reserves, decreased the efficiency of her Light, damaged the bond between herself and Niles, or perhaps the damage is to Niles. If I thought she’d let me I would be happy to try and help her. As it is, I believe her best bet may be Eris Morn.”

“Even from me,” Vice said slowly. “I don’t think she’d accept help.”

“Would she send Eris away?” Silla asked.

“I- I don’t think so?” Vice sounded confused. 

“If Eris showed up out of nowhere,” MU realized.

“Maybe? Especially if she didn’t know any of us were involved?” Vice said, hopefully.

“Those sorts of secrets will always come back to bite you,” Shry cautioned. 

“They can bite me all they want if it means she doesn’t die to this,” Silla said, right hand in a fist, she looked at Rathna. The EXO winced but nodded. “I’m not asking any of you to keep my actions secret,” she told them. “I’m asking you to wait to make contact with her until Eris can tell us if this is Hive. Given how long it’s been I expect whatever it is isn’t contagious but I can’t knowingly take that risk with any of you.”

“This could lose us a teammate,” Pryderi said slowly.

“She could be dying already,” Silla countered.

“I know; I’m not saying don’t do it. I just… I had never thought about the idea that the team could change.”

Silla wilted again and Rathna practically hung off her arm trying to offer comfort. 

“Come on, Keen,” Katya offered. “Let’s walk and talk about that.”

“Can I come too?” Vice asked. 

“Sure,” Katya agreed. They set off together. Shry watched them go with a surprised expression on her face. 

“Katya trained them,” Silla said by way of explanation. 

“You okay, Faer?” MU asked. “Queen Bitch tried to kill you.”

“I’ve been waiting for it for a while now,” Silla shook her head. “It’s no problem.”

“Bullshit,” MU said at the same time that Shry said, “Excuse me?” The two Warlocks exchanged a look and nodded at each other.

“Look,” MU continued. “She kept some massive stuff from you and you found out through another source that she did. That’s a big deal. Given that she just attacked you with intent to kill, that’s two rather big betrayals all at once.”

“I actively chose not to pull your backgrounds,” Silla pointed out. 

“And she took advantage of that.”

“Remember,” Rathna said. “Beginning. Very excited.”

“Yeah, she was,” MU agreed slowly. “She was really happy to be on a fireteam. Maybe she thought we knew?”

Silla shrugged, shaking her head. When Silla remained silent, Shry stepped forward. “I’m new to the fireteam world. Was it out of line to step in like that?”

Rathna and MU both shook their heads. Silla sighed. “No. Anyone trying to kill anyone is reason to step in, even for Guardians. I’ve had a plan for this for a while though. I wanted to take the opportunity to try communicating with her in a different way.”

“You kept her on the team?” Shry asked. “When you expected her to try and kill a teammate?”

“I expected her to come at _me_ ,” Silla corrected. “I have worked at redirecting her anger away from the rest of the team. It’s worked for the most part and it’s allowed me to control the response to her anger.”

“Silla,” MU stared at her. “I nearly Devoured her into the ground when she went for you. The only reason I hesitated is because of what you said when you told me to get Pryderi and Ardath clear.”

“Thanks for that,” Ardath said quietly, having finally approached.

Rathna turned and got in Silla’s face. “You sent team away? Expecting attack and isolated?”

“Controlling the fallout,” Silla explained.

Rathna frowned. “No.”

“Agreed,” MU said. “No more solo-Faer sacrifice bullshit.”

“Enabled,” Rathna said and Silla sank back on her heels. “Team should have reacted together.”

“Then she would have run away,” Silla pointed out.

“So?” MU asked.

“Team enabled. No disapproval tacit approval.”

Silla closed her eyes, ducking her head. “Damn.”

“Look, thank you for keeping that crazy pointed away from me and all but I think the whole point of team is that you don’t have to do it alone.” MU said.

“That,” Rathna agreed.

Silla nodded without lifting her head or opening her eyes. 

“Give her a minute to breathe?” Shry suggested quietly. Silla heard them shuffle a few steps away.

_Silla?_

_Can’t stop fucking up, Bee._

_People are upset with you for letting a lady on fire try to attack you and you say you fucked up._

_And for not handling Lishan correctly._

_Lishan ensured you couldn’t handle Lishan correctly. Rathna wants to be sure you won’t solo things again. They're scared of losing you. MU is too. Remember what Shry said?_

_Yeah. Okay. I’m okay. Vice and Pryderi?_

_Katya’s talking to them about loss and grief. I think they’ll be okay. She’s a good teacher._

_ETA?_

_Oof, none._

Silla lifted her head to find Shry asking MU questions about carrying six Ghosts and Ardath showing Rathna some weird device that had them enthralled. 

MU looked up as Silla approached and tossed an arm across her shoulders. “What I don’t understand,” he said slowly. “Is why Lishan would blow up in front of guests. She’s always been so concerned with appearances.”

“That’s why she blew up,” Ardath said immediately. Silla looked at him and he seemed surprised to have her attention. “I mean, she’s the only survivor of a team of heroes. She thinks she should be Shry’s equal.”

Shry’s expression shuttered in an instant. 

“Idiot,” Rathna sighed. “One of seven thinks to equal one of one? Bad math.”

“Sounds like Lishan’s brand of arrogance,” MU sighed. “Do you have a plan for this part, boss?”

“I told her the team would still be here when she was ready to be on one,” Silla shrugged. “We keep training, keep working. I’ve thought we could bring in extras to teach them what you do, MU, so other fireteams can have that option. We could see if anyone’s interested when we need a full six.”

“Having more Guardians with those skills could make an enormous difference,” Shry said. “Bee, did you get-”

“Schematics! Yes! The team has them but we haven’t gotten together the resources yet.”

“I have extras on top of spares,” Isaac finally spoke. “I believe Astrophel does as well.”

“Are there any spherical?” Bee asked, excited.

“No,” Issac said. “We have not yet determined how to maintain the physical benefits with other shapes.”

“I will science!” Bee proclaimed and vanished.

“She’s so cute,” Ardath whispered. 

“Hilariously, that’s what she thinks of you too,” Silla told him, causing him to stammer.

“Any tips on learning Arc when you started with Void and Dawnblade only for Grace?” MU asked, leaning around Silla to look at Shry.

“Storms,” she said immediately. “Go where the action’s happening and feel it in process. What it takes to build up, what slows it down, what pushes it into movement, what determines its direction.”

“Is that what you did?” Silla asked, curious. Ardath dropped his head in his hands.

“Maybe,” Shry grinned. 

“You didn’t start with Arc?” MU asked, surprised.

“Started with Solar,” she shook her head. “Learned Void by accident. Chased storms on purpose.”

“How do you learn Void on accident?”

“Panicked in the middle of a dive,” she shrugged. “Blinked.”

“Damn,” he muttered. “Good at things without trying.”

“Oh, Arc was my trying,” Shry said. “I chased storms for… a long time. My poor Ghost wanted to kill me himself I think. He hated storms.”

“Past tense?” MU glanced at Isaac. 

“I am her second Ghost,” Isaac said.

MU and Rathna turned to look at them and Silla risked a glance at Ardath. He was pulling a bit roughly on his finger joints. Silla sent a thought to Bee and the Ghost appeared and bumped his hands.

“How?” Rathna asked quietly. 

“Still don’t know,” Shry admitted. “We were on Io. I took a walk to cool off from an argument. Whatever it was it… Must have been able to crush a standard Ghost shell.”

“That’s awful,” MU said, shuddering.

“That’s why the shell upgrades. Ardath developed them,” Shry explained. 

“Ardath, tell me everything!” Bee said immediately, circling his head. “I need to always be a sphere! And I want to be see through! Hard to see!”

“None of the materials we used are see through,” Ardath said, holding very still so he didn’t bump Bee. “I don’t know of see through materials with the necessary hardness and I don’t know how to maintain the redistribution capacity with spherical degree curves.”

“We’re going to find them!” Bee insisted. “And we’re going to figure out how to make EXO plates of the same materials!”

Ardath, MU, and Rathna all blinked, considering. 

“Bee, that’s an amazing idea,” Shry said, delighted. 

“Oh man,” Silla groaned. “Do you know how hard it is to keep up with Katya in melee right now? If you make her even heavier-”

MU swatted her ear. “Don’t you dare comment on her weight; she’s a lady!”

“So I should start practicing my throws on you?”

“Your _what_?” 

Shry grinned the moment Silla did. Silla grabbed hold of his arm and pivoted on her heel, heaving him across her back and onto the ground, pleased Ardath had moved out of range of MU’s feet. 

“What the fuck?” the EXO coughed from the ground.

“Throw,” Silla said as if that explained anything.

“Faer, if any of my casings cracked because of this you are paying for replacements.”

“If I replace them regularly can I throw you more?” she asked, sly.

“Hng, stop it with the glowy puppy eyes. Why do you ask me for violence all the time? Why is it never a spa day?”

“I take you to lunch three times every two weeks,” she reminded him. 

“And we train how many times a week? The ratios are not balanced.”

“Casing replacements and wine,” she bargained. 

“You’re killing me, boss.”

“I’ll teach you all of the throws and the counters.”

“You know I’m at least as heavy as Katya, right?”

“Good strength training,” she agreed.

“Damnit, Faer. Fine.”

“Yes!” Silla bounced on the balls of her feet and then hurried to help him up. “Okay, watch. Shry, you know that one?”

“Katya’s only used it on me more times than I want to think about,” the woman sighed, walking to Silla’s side. “You’re too tall, though.” 

“That’s fine,” Silla said, easily laying an arm across Shry’s shoulders and accepting the throw from Shry with a, “Whee!” and rolled out of the landing to her feet. “Did you see how she did it?” she asked.

Rathna nodded and MU stared at her uncomprehending.

“Okay. I think we’re gonna have to do it slow. Rathna, come do it to me so I can see if you’ve got it and then you can do it slow because it will be easier for you to do that.”

Rathna took Silla’s arm without waiting for her and Silla went through the air again. 

“That was… the right idea,” Shry decided. “But you’re actually going to want to use a different throw in that posture.”

MU groaned and Silla grinned from the ground. “Just think about being able to put Vice on the ground, MU.” His expression turned contemplative and she counted that a win. 

When the Titans returned, Silla and Rathna were wrestling on the ground while MU pretended to take a nap and Shry and Ardath chatted with Bee and Kreine. Pryderi threw himself down next to MU. Katya stopped at the edge of the wrestling, watching critically. Rathna and Silla broke apart, and Silla offered Rathna a high five. 

“Not bad,” Katya noted.

“MU,” Vice stood awkwardly by his feet. “I want to apologize.”

The EXO lit one eye and then sat up on his elbows. “What for?” he asked, baffled.

“I can’t think of a time I didn’t join Lishan in picking on you, or choose her side in an argument. And that’s not because you’re always wrong, much as I hate to admit it. You often have a point. So. Sorry. I’m going to work on listening more.”

Silla’s eyebrows had nearly reached her hairline. She hadn’t dared hope Vice would listen that well. 

“Uh, it’s cool. I’m pretty dumb,” he shrugged. “But thanks, really. Just want to be on the team, you know?”

Vice leaned her head to the side, considering him. “I think I do, yes,” she said thoughtfully. “You’re not dumb.”

“Okay, okay. I’m pretty average,” MU said, as if it were a confession. “But don’t tell anyone.”

Vice opened her mouth and then hesitated. “Right,” she said slowly. “Sure.”

“Cool. You two doing okay?” MU asked, looking between Vice and Pryderi.

“I need booze,” Pryderi muttered. 

“That, that I can help with,” MU said, pushing himself to his feet. “Vice?”

“Working on it.”

“Cool. Booze at my place in an hour.”

Vice and Rathna both nodded and said goodbye to the team and Shry, Ardath, Katya, Isaac, and Astrophel and transmatted away, Pryderi following shortly after. MU strode to Silla’s side and offered her a hand. “You have an out,” he said, nodding toward Katya and Shry as she let him pull her to her feet. “Don’t say anything to yourself that I wouldn’t say to you, okay?”

Silla kept her grip on his hand and stepped in to give him a long hug. “Thanks for everything, MU.”

“Heya,” he grinned. “I’ll share booze for hugs any day.”

She smiled and turned him loose. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, referring to one of their lunch days.

“Bring the wine,” he grinned and transmatted away.

Silla turned to face her visitors. “Sorry that went badly,” she offered.

“How long has that been going on?” Astrophel asked, anxious.

“She started having trouble about six months ago,” Silla shrugged. “It didn’t escalate quite like that until fairly recently.”

“You don’t have to handle that sort of thing alone,” Katya said.

“Got that lecture from Rathna and MU,” Silla sighed.

“Good. It’s good to see them stepping up more.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, relieved to move on. “Rathna’s responded really well to Pryderi asking them to give him a sort of lexicon for understanding them. MU’s been a lifesaver in general.”

“Vice will never step up until she’s challenged,” Katya pointed out.

“Oh, she’s going to be challenged. No one else is in the running for Clutter team lead. I’m probably going to let her run Pryderi and Rathna for a while so she can see what team synergy feels like.”

“Teach MU to do callouts like you do,” Katya suggested.

“That will help him spot situations where he needs to run,” Bee agreed.

“Sounds good. Probably a good skill to teach the runners in general,” Silla said, running a hand over a sensitive spot on her forearm. 

Ardath frowned. “Are you still in pain?”

“Sensitive,” she shrugged.

Shry dropped another Rift. “That was very brave, what you did with Lishan.”

Silla sat in the Rift and frowned up at Shry. “Brave?”

“You let her use fire to feel safer and you made yourself vulnerable to her in order to communicate with her.”

Frowning, Silla considered. “It didn’t feel like bravery. It felt like stupidity.”

“That’s usually what bravery feels like,” Shry smiled, pain in the expression.

Bee appeared at her shoulder. “Niles says she’s too angry for him to talk to her right now. He’s staying phased for the time being.”

“Poor Niles,” Silla sighed.

Bee turned and ran scans over Silla. “Tissue damage is resolved. Some minor nerve damage remaining. Want me to fix it?”

“Please.”

“Does Marikit actually prefer it when MU is dead?” Isaac asked in the silence that followed.

“No clue,” Silla admitted, stretching to test Bee’s healing. “She doesn’t talk to me much. I know she dislikes him and has taken his front of laziness very seriously.”

Katya crouched next to her. “When was the last time you slept?”

“Uh-” Silla stumbled over the non-sequitur. 

“Four days!” Bee chirped.

“Farm?” Katya offered. “We’re headed to the spot you picked for Shry. She’s gonna teach me to camp.”

“Yay!” Silla grinned. “I’ll show you some more fun places once you get the hang of it.”

“Farm?” Katya repeated.

“Yeah,” Silla caved. “Yeah, I’ll head there as soon as I stand up.” She’d sleep, and then she’d go visit Eris.


End file.
